Time - Short Story

Stephen ran out of the office doors into the street, the road in front of him already a chaotic mess of cars and people, all rushing to get away from here, horns sounded and people argued. The sound of a hundred car radios, all repeating the same message echoed, time was short.

He pushed his way through the crowds, running towards the end of the road, he knew going back to his car was not going to work, the road was jammed but he had 2 feet and could push past people. Normally a foot trip to Stephens home would take 20 minutes from here, maybe a little more, today more due to the pure volume of traffic in his way, but he also knew time was scarce.

Running between cars which were gridlocked into place he set off over the road, the chaos continued to build around him for 4 maybe 5 minutes at a decent running pace, until the people started to thin and he was able to push on.

As the pavements quietened, he became aware of the silence and began to think. He’d heard the news for weeks, building tensions between the country and several others, accusations had flown, but everyone had expected it to blow over. However it hadn’t. The office had turned silent when the news came across every TV and Radio they had, tensions had turned into threats and threats had turned into action. The news had said reports indicated there had been a launch of some kind, what? Not sure. At where? Not sure, but every major city went into panic mode within seconds.

He felt a pain in his chest as he ran, he’d never been much of an athlete and although adrenaline had pushed him this far, his body was now saying to stop. He pulled up and started trying to catch his breath against the brick wall, he had reached houses and must’ve been going for more than 10 minutes now. He reached for his phone and dialled home, but it was no good, tens, possibly hundreds of thousands of calls were clogging up the network, he wasn’t going to get through. He knew another 5 minutes at good pace and he’d be home. The road to the side of him was already full and slowing down, but the pavement was only being shared with a few people, he picked himself up and pressed on as best he could.

He had no idea how long he’d have until anything happened, even if it was going to happen at all. The houses he was rushing past were in varying states of panic, doors were left open, suitcases lay in gardens, belongings were scattered around as people had hurried to cars and tried to get away. Looking at the road again he deduced unless they were the first ones away, those panicked families, were maybe only a few hundred yards up the road, stuck in the cars, struggling to get anywhere.

He reached for his phone again but the display was blank, no calls, no messages. He reached back to his pocket, but felt a pain to his stomach. He fell to the floor and a man stood over him.

“Your phone, I need it, give it to me.” Stephen looked up to see a well-dressed, but clearly tired and emotional man, he was brandishing  a stick that used to be part of a fence, possibly his fence. Stephen had been struck with it hard in the abdomen.

“It’s no good,” Stephen protested, “The networks are dead.”

The well-dressed man took another swing and caught Stephen in his arm, he dropped the phone into the road and the man scampered after it. Stephen, wanted the handset back, but equally didn’t want to waste time fighting for it, especially hundreds of yards from his front door. He took the man’s distraction as a chance to pick himself up and press on. Winded, yes, but so close, he could make it. Within 2 minutes of getting up, he rounded the wall outside his home and ran up the path. The door was open, but the car was still on the drive. He ran inside and began shouting,

“Rebecca? Ruby?” No answer at first until he saw a figure come through a door leading to the living room. The small figure of Ruby, his daughter, ran to him, clutching round his leg.

“Daddy!” She exclaimed and he held her close to him.

Rebecca came down the stairs with a back pack over her back.

“You made it, thank god, but we need to get going, anywhere out of the city.” Stephen nodded agreement and scooping Ruby up they made it out of the door.

“Car’s no good, every road is jam packed.” Stephen said, “foot would be faster”. Rebecca acknowledged this and they began making their way out and down the road.

The number of people to have made it out this far was now far greater. The three joined a procession of people making their way further from the centre any what they thought was potential targets. Another half hour passed, maybe an hour from the panic had ensued and nothing. They had made ground, maybe a couple of miles but still would have seen, if not felt any blast that had hit the buildings not getting small in the distance.

The three caught up to a group with a small radio and slowed down to listen.

“The national stations are dead, but we can get signal from the more local ones. But even then… no news for about 15 minutes.” Volunteered one of the group, a young girl, possibly no more than 17 or 18 years old.

“What was the last?”

“London was hit, targeted the centre… badly damaged. The coast also took some hits. They say there may be more, but they haven’t said what it was hit by.”

Stephen put his hand to his face and shook his head, “Nothing is worth this nothing!”

The crowds carried on, pushing northwards. They had found a main road, clogged so badly by cars they had been abandoned and the people that brought them swelled the numbers walking. The people were walking towards a village that was a few miles outside the city, it couldn’t hope to cope with this many people but it was somewhere to go.

People around started to speculate, they pondered, have we done anything back, have we returned fire? Where was next, would there even be anything else aimed at the country.

A voice came from a little further back in the crowd, “There’s more coming!” it shouted. Suddenly 100s of people felt the ground beneath them tremble slightly and a deafening sound from behind them. People span round and gazed back to see a bright light and smoke emerge from the distance, from where they had been just hours before.

Stephen gripped Rebecca and Ruby tightly to him. It was seconds before the heat hit them and they remembered it for even less, the last thing he could do was whisper, “I love you” to his wife and daughter before everything melted away. His hands left limp and lost the grip on his family and the world slipped away.

Nothing was worth this.

Portal 2

Yes I've mumped on about Portal 2 for god knows how long, well it's out now, I've played it and last night I finished it, well the single player mode anyway.

To be fair, it's as good as I expected, maybe better! The game is superbly paced throughout, the difficulty curve spot on, with only a few baffling moments, all of which can be worked through with a bit of thought. The voice acting cast features excellent performances from everyone with a decent cast of Stephen Merchant, J. K. Simmons, and Ellen McLain, who of course gives us a song at the end. Stephen Merchant in particular has an almost perfect script for his voice and personality, a source of constant hilarity. Simmons gives an excellent, borderline eerie performance as Cave Johnson though some of the most interesting levels of the game.

Some slight disappointments though, the single player campaign isn't the longest, still longer than the first game though obviously. I also I did find the final boss a bit easier than I'd expected, especially after the pain in the arse to beat GLaDOS was in the first game.

Plot wise, the story was varied and pretty good, I wont go into spoilers and the works or the 6 people who will read this may get upset with me, but needless to say, the mid game twist wasn't all that expected and I laughed a couple of times at the ending.  Especially one line in particular which thinking about it is pretty innocuous but just struck a chord with me.

And then the ending closes with... 'Want You Gone" by Jonathan Coulton. Following the tradition set by the first game JoCo writes the song and GLaDOS sings us out! This song, while not maybe quite as good as 'Still Alive' was still a funny and good tune. I will be getting myself a copy as soon as iTunes has one to sell me!! It's made me a little happier I'm off to see him in 6 weeks in Bristol, as long as he plays it that is.

Overall, the game is superb, so many strong aspects come together to form easily the best of the year so far. Please God make a Portal 3, I'll preorder it now if you want.... Please Valve?

Royal Wedding II The Continuation

Some months ago I wrote basically of my complete lack of interest in the forthcoming royal wedding well the time has come, on Friday, which despite my earlier promises that I'd happily go to work on the day... I'm not, as I haven't got too, the two rich posh people will have their giant partially public funded wedding. Can you see how the enthusiasm has build up for me?? Can you tell how much I'm now looking forward to the event I once derided?? Nor me, still think it's a massive waste of hype and column inches.

While the darling other half was watching channel 5 there was even a cheap ass, lame, stupid, painfully romanticised TV movie of how they met. I mean honestly, who would watch that? Is it even accurate, I somehow doubt they were consulted on the script!

TV is preparing to be taken over by constant overage, 'expert' analysis of every insignificant detail, I mean 8 hours solid non ITV... Jesus wept. The entire police force of the country it seems will be in London making sure some nutter with a flag doesn't get within 5 yards of any of the important people. I mean honestly, if you ever wanted to commit minor crime, they're all too busy, now's your moment! It all just seems like a horrible horrible resource hole and more is getting poured down it all the time. Much like the olympics.

Tat has appeared in shops, I've seen mass produced fake hand drawings of the couple, and indeed of each individually, teatowels, cups, coins, all crap! But I suppose someone must be buying it. I'll not be attending a street party and I don't know of anyone who is, thankfully. I don't actually know of any street parties so maybe there is some sanity in the world yet, or at least in Merthyr, and it's not often you can say that with a straight face.

Really it's a good thing, my pure desire to avoid this... event + the time off = day with Gracie n Cerys, see I can find the positives in anything!

Wii 2 (Wii Wii?)

So Nintendo have announced the latest in their quick turnaround machine upgrades, next year the Wii will be replaced by the Wii 2 (I'm assuming a more creative working title will follow). The Wii itself always disappointed me, the concept was good but the follow through? It's had a few good games, the usual Nintendo staples such as Mario, Mario Kart were good. The Wii Silent Hill is supposed to be excellent (never played it) and some games such as Resi 4, Eledees, Mad World, got through, even games like Conduit tried, but for the most part the software support has been poor.

Firstly, Nintendo share an ethos with Apple, they like upgrading their machines so people have to pay full price to have the latest. Hand-held wise since the EU launch of the DS in 2006 there has been DS, DS Lite, DSi, DSi XL, 3DS, each more expensive than the last while just offering enough to make it a viable new product. Console wise 5 years between Gamecube and Wii is quite short for this kind of thing and it'll be 6 between Wii and Wii 2. For comparison the 360 is a year older than the Wii and has no plans to be replaced any time soon (although to be fair xbox to 360 was a REALLY short turnaround).

But what does this announcement mean for the Wii? Who's going to develop software for it now when it's days are already numbered? It was a great opportunity that never got the chance to get going, suffocated by casual gaming and shovelware to put it nicely. Apparently the Wii 2 (I like Wii Wii... Nintendo can you hear me?) will be easy to write for and port, but the Wii has a reputation for being a 'casual' console and that rep could be hard to shift.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

So Friday I stuck an application in for another job. Not another company, still staying with the Brotherhood of <company name>, but another department and a totally different role.

This has made me think, was it a good idea. I was ummming and arrring until the last minute, but in the end just hit the button and submitted it. That's another point, the application form was online, which despite being the total geek that I am, I didn't like. It almost felt like it was encouraging me to provide shorter answers, as is my experience using web forms, but I got over this and did a reasonable job I think.

Anyway, it made me evaluate where I am exactly, I have a job now I'm comfortable in, I'm good at, is secure. So why look for alternatives? The job I've applied for is in IT, and I think that was a strong attracting factor, as I've always fancied working in IT. I'm good with computers, and I think I'll be good at it with a little guidance.

But who knows if I've made the right decision, it's not like I'm certain to get it anyway, there's probably 200 people better for the job in the company, and it's not like I couldn't pull out.

Oh who knows, I'll see what happens.

At least I got to use a Bowie song as I title!

Homefront

About E3 time last year I noticed a trailer for a game I'd only heard vague things about before. The trailer was a back story trailer and used very believable plot points to eventually develop the story into the Korean invasion of America. The trailer was excellent and the story got my attention from the outset, I had high hopes for the game! I thought if narrative of this standard could be maintained through this game, and could be this interesting, it could help supplement what is getting to be a very tired genre.

As things got closer to the release I began to hear very mixed things about the gameplay. Formulaic, uninteresting were just some of the words that were banded about, and in the end I didn't end up buying it. But thankfully due to a work friend lending me his copy I did get the chance to play it.

Well, that was a lucky escape! Yes the plot is still good, but the game... not so good. Where to start? The characters, well each is a stereotype. Only the woman ever shows any real emotion (well a man wouldn't would they) The dialogue is dreadful, not so much the cut scenes, but the 'on the move' dialogue is a few lines repeated over and over again. The objectives generally switch between 1) Follow Connor 2) Shoot stuff 3) Follow Connor to next  laid on set piece 4) shoot more shit, and become tiresome quite quickly.

It follows the COD blueprint of throwing in sniper levels and vehicles, but this is the best and worst of the game. The sniper sections are reasonable enough, as good as it gets anyway, but the vehicles, especially the shocking helicopter level, are beyond poor. The helicopter is painfully difficult to control and about as much fun as waxing (or so I'm told...).

The enemies are all the same pretty much to look at, (except for 1 level where they're different, but still the same as each other) but they die randomly. I killed one guy with 2 to the kneecap, but his mate took 3 or 4 to the head... that does not make sense.Why would a Wookiee, an 8-foot-tall Wookiee, want to live on Endor, with a bunch of 2-foot-tall Ewoks? That does not make sense!

In generally the single player is a let down, a horrible disappointment, but at least it was over quick, what was that 4, 4.5 hours? Not allot of bang for ya buck and ended with what can only be described as a weak ass ending, no spoilers here though.

Now throw in the traditional graphical glitches, corpses falling through walls and the like.

I've not tried the multiplayer, I've no inclination too either, I have Bad Company 2 if I wanted that.

Such a pity, could have been amazing, Portal 2 will be amazing. 1 more week!

X Factor!

Good God this is out of season, X Factor is months away yet, but oh well. I actually had 3 ideas for today, bet I'll forget the other 2...

It's hit the news today that the winner before last of X-Factor Joe Mceldry (No I can't spell it, yes I could look it up, no I'm not going too) has been dropped by his record label. For me this just goes to show the show has nothing to do with music.

At the time where he was on the show, he, apparently, had millions of fans, people took time out of their lives and paid money out of their pockets to vote for him and seemingly elevate him to a level where he would sell records and do well. But what happens to these people once the series is over. They are driven into a frenzy to but the amazingly well publicised first single, which in Joe's case just failed to get to #1 for Christmas, beaten (thankfully) by RATM, which incidentally I bought, but after that, more often than not these people fall flat on their face.

I think that in the cold light of day (I'm just rolling with the clichés today!) once there's no glitz, no judges assuring you this person is the best singer since the last one they praised, when people only have the music to judge. Once they get to this point, people realise that these people only got anywhere based on hype, and now... aren't very good.

Occasionally it puts up people who are good. You can't deny Leona Lewis can sing, I quite like Steve Brookstein (the only guy I actually ever wasted cash voting for) even though he doesn't really release stuff any more.

JoCo comes to the UK!

Some very exciting news (I think anyway) broke last night! Jonathan Coulton will be, briefly, in the UK in June! For those who have no idea who he is he's a singer! A singer of a highly geeky nature and to be fair has done some cracking songs in his time. He's best known (among geeks and gamers) for writing the song 'Still Alive' from the quite simply awesome game Portal. He also performs a good version of the song himself (in game it's sung by one of the characters) which is on the official orange box soundtrack. Go find, it's worth it.

Yesterday evening he announced via a blog via twitter (Jesus who would plug a blog via twitter, loser) that he'll be playing 3 dates in the UK! Now, there's no Cardiff date, I'm fairly sure he doesn't know Cardiff even exists and funnily enough he's not down to play Merthyr either. I have thoughts on bands who skip an entire country as I've posted previously. But I have travelled to see the likes on Ben Folds, Green Day, Barenaked Ladies so I clearly will do it. Coulton is playing Bristol so I'm thinking, as it's a small tour, I've never seen him before, I can let this one slide and take a trip over the bridge to see his acoustic delights!

This isn't of course a random trip, he has a new album due out any time now called Artificial Heart, which to be fair I'm also looking forward too. I can only urge everyone to check out his best of, it's surprisingly good, but as he doesn't own it, neither version of Still Alive is included. Valve have the rights as the game publishers.

He's also done a song for Portal 2, I'd imagine to take the same role as Still Alive, and my enthusiasm for this game is very high, as I may have mentioned. Only a 8 days to go! Plus I have to finish Fallout 3 before then!

So JoCo, when are the tickets out??

The walking dead

I am somewhat behind on this, as it was recommended to me when shown on FX (or some godforsaken little sky channel) in October, but I saw the first episode of the Walking Dead last night. To be fair it was pretty good.

It contained allot of your typical Zombie plot points (woke up from coma, oooh no people, wait there's a zombie),  but seemed to try to focus on human element a little more. Zombie films very rarely make the effort to flesh out their characters too much, as much as I enjoy George A Romeros work, a great character developer he was not, most were just developed to the point where you'd notice when they were eaten, without you really being bothered by it.

For starters I thought it was very reminiscent of films such as, and in particular, 28 days later, which had alot of the same imagery. The hospital, the wandering round on your own, but of course 28 days later wasn't zombies it was infected people! (Before someone corrects me)

The acting wasn't nearly as hammy as I was expecting, even the bloke from This Life and Teachers was good. Generally it's set itself up nicely for a good series, albeit quite a short one at 6 episodes. Saying that 6 episodes, but long ones, last nights was 90 mins (65/70 without the constant channel 5 adverts?) so there's still plenty of time to let the story develop.

So, looking forward to the rest of the series, and apparently there's a 'season' 2 as well (Americanism!)

On the other hand series 4 of Benidorm finished on Friday, which gradually got better as it went. I don't think it ever got as good as series 1-3, it badly missed some of the written out characters and most of the new ones were pretty blah. Some of the stories were a little OTT but don't think I'd mind another series. Just something about it works, Steve Pemberton is without fail excellent.

Go on one more.

3DS

I had significant doubts when I heard about the 3DS. It must be the 5th version of the hand held Nintendo have banged out over a reasonably short space of time, each time offering an upgrade yes, but also each time demanding more money, as well as horribly devaluing any consoles already in circulation. But now I've tried one and I can confirm they are good.

My initial doubts were how they would present the 3D effect, however it is good and does look good, when potentially I suppose it could have been a disaster. The effect gives a great impression of depth and the augmented reality software that comes included is excellent. I also had a quick go at pilotwings and it was nice to look at, easy to control, everything you'd want or expect from a game of that series.

Of course there are limitations to the system, Nintendo have introduced region locking on games going forward sop no importing titles early. Security has been stepped up to try and prevent DS cards fitted with micro SDs (such as the R4) running nicked software (you'll never stop them Nintendo, give up), and the 3D effect does have a tenancy of dying on its arse if you don't have the console at the right angle.

My question is what kind of software support it'll get. The Wii was a cracking idea as was the original DS, but one thing they have been plagued with from the start is mountains and mountains of shovelware. The kind of crap cheap to produce game that is purely a money maker, I'm on about the 5000 party games compilations, the 2000 variations on the sims and nintendogs. It's very easy for software companies to shovel out this crap knowing people will buy it, than invest in a deep, clever, fun game that may not appeal to a good proportion of the userbase.

The Wii has had 'proper' titles, but few and far between, with the majority failing commercially (Okami anyone) regardless of their quality. I fear the same for the 3DS, I fear the same for all future consoles casual is ever mentioned in conjunction with, I fear the same for Kinect too if I'm honest.

But the hardware and the principle is sound. It'll doubtless get the usual smattering of traditional openers, I believe Mario Kart 3DS is already on route. I'm not ready to part with over £200 to own my own, I've just bought my netbook after all, but when the 3DSi comes out next year (followed by the 3DSi XL of course) I may pick one up cheap :)

Oh and everyone 21st of this month sees Portal 2 come out. Can't express my expectations for this game, not in words!!

Fallout revisited

When I first played it, I hated Fallout 3. Found it drawn out, dull, uninteresting, unengaging etc. But then I received (at my request) Fallout: New Vegas as a crimbo present. Now essentially it's the same game, but weirdly I really enjoyed NV. It played the same, I think the characters were better (wonderful work from Odo from DS9 on the Mr House voice) but for some reason the game just clicked with me.

This has inspired me, I've gone tearing back to Fallout 3 and started a new game! I'm already doing better at it, as I know what I'm doing far better from the extended NV playing. The character I've set up is essentially the same as my NV character, which is far from how I tried to play 3 the first time. Basically in the space of 90mins I've got almost as far as my entire effort previously, infact I'm a single plot point behind and am further with one side quest.

That has made me think, what went wrong the first time then? Don't get me wrong, I'm still don't think 3 is the greatest thing I've ever played, so far the characters aren't as good, no doubting that in my head, but it's nowhere near as bad as I remember. No doubt something will frustrate me soon enough and I'll revert back to my previous opinion, but for now, game on!

Downside it is distracting me from Top Spin 4, which so far I must say plays wonderfully, but I've found shockingly easy. The AI tactics are predictable and repetitive and easy to counter. Played it online against a similar player and it was awesome though!!

These will tide me over until Portal 2 comes out at least. Can't say how much I'm looking forward to a bit of orange and blue action. The original was a triumph, I'm making a note here huge success (sorry, actually after that I'll leave it there)

OK then, don't keep on running, it's up to you

I honestly don't know whether I'm accident prone, unlucky or my body has some kind conspiracy against me. I'm guessing it's the first, but no guarantees.

No sooner as I signed my name on the (digital) dotted line for the half marathon and good cause bit I so lovingly blogged about Monday, than I manage to injure myself! I'd been playing 5 a side for what must've been 35 or 40 seconds when I get a pain in my right thigh. No, that can't be great I thought, but I carried on and before I knew it kicking the damn thing became a remarkably sore experience. That's right, I'd done a muscle in my thigh. Highly annoying! I played on, but with little ability to kick, run or stick my leg out you can imagine how useful I was.

You think my body has some kind of problem with me becoming fitter. It felt the cardio about to be pushed and went, "Screw that fat boy, you aint taking my McDonalds off me." I would like to reassure my body, the McDonalds will be a constant, although overtaken in the preference scale by a Dominos American hot with no onion and extra pepperoni. mmmmmmmmmmmm

It's only now the second day and the pain is better and I'm already not walking like quite the weirdo I was yesterday, I honestly think I'll be fit to go back to the gym on the weekend, but it's still annoying as it's put me  behind where I wanted to be before I've even started.

I've got 4 months and I'm not exactly starting from scratch so I think I'll be OK. But if this happened just at the wrong moment, what's going to happen next? It's been a few years since I broke anything... I'm sure it'll be fine.

Regardless of no training I am today going to start my fundraising efforts in earnest. I'll start with work. Generally people in work with me a good people and generous ones too, I'm hoping that has continued into the current questionable economic climate. They should be used to me by now by generally do 1 charity thing a year, such as the Excalibur Challenge last year in which me n 3 others raised £1,300 or so for Velindre. I'm not going to manage that solo obviously, but its good as it shows I can do it.

I'm not sure whether to stick to, 'will you please sponsor me' stuff or expand a little. In that £1,300 was the proceeds from a quiz night, once again much harder to do anything with solo than with 4, but if I ask nice maybe they'll help!

Keep on Running!

Today, I signed myself up to run Octobers Cardiff half marathon.

I've always been one of those people who trains and looks after themselves far better when they have some sort of goal to work towards. Goal driven if you will. So today I put a rather large goal almost looming over me, as a result I will go to the gym, mainly as I don't want top die in a park in Cardiff.

13.1 miles is a long way and I'm not anywhere near fit enough at the moment but I'll get there. I'm hoping for a time around 2:20-2:30 with no injuries. I'll be happy with that. Let's be honest, I'll be happy to finish before the 3 hours is up and I have to dodge cars in the street to get to the line! It's good to have ambition I find.

I will of course drag my ass round the Swansea 10k as preparation, which is always nice and not too far. It'll be fine... my God what have I done...

What signing up for these types of events also does is give me an opportunity to raise some money for good causes and this is no exception. I have signed up as one of the Velindre 100 Team to help raise funds for Velindre Cancer Centre. I'm in the process of making up a justgiving page, which if anyone feels the urge to donate too.. please do. Link will follow! My initial target is a princely £100, I hope to beat that, but who knows, it relies on me getting sponsors, something which I'm bad at.

Oh well I'll try me best. I have twitter I suppose, I'll use that.

Anyway I off to play 5-a-side.